Schools in Pakistan to Re-open from September 15th
The Federal Minister of Education, Shafqat Mehmood, announced the reopening of schools across Pakistan. The schools will start to resume in phases nearly six months since the pandemic started.
Speaking at a press conference following a meeting of the Inter-Provincial Conference of Ministers of Education (IPEMC), Mehmood said in the first phase that all higher education institutions, including universities, professional colleges, vocational institutes and classes nine to 12, will resume on Sept. 15.
“Higher education institutions and senior school classes will reopen on September 15, class six till eight will open again on September 23, and on September 30 primary classes will reopen,” Shafqat Mahmood told a news conference on Monday.
“It is a difficult decision, as it involves the future of children, it was not an easy decision to make,” Mahmood said, adding that success will only be achieved when parents and teachers play their role.”
Dr. Fasal Sultan, Special Assistant to the Health Prime Minister, also spoke at the press conference and said that there is a need to reduce student density in classes.
“The government would ensure implementation of health screening; Covid-19 surveillance; sentinel testing and continuous monitoring of educational institutions after their reopening.
“The main objective of regular sentinel testing is to monitor the coronavirus situation and examine the health of teachers and children at schools after every two weeks,” he said.